


True love makes you smile

by shinchiisanakyojin



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: 'Cause they are babies., Angst, Boys Kissing, Canon Compliant, Canon Era, Except the benefits just go as far as butt touching., Fluff, Friends With Benefits, Jealousy, Jean is a jealous baby., M/M, Not really but y'know..., canonverse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-10
Updated: 2016-03-10
Packaged: 2018-05-25 18:07:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,312
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6205372
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shinchiisanakyojin/pseuds/shinchiisanakyojin
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jean and Armin have a deal to meet from time to time and be together in order to relieve the stress of their intense lives. However, Jean realizes his feelings for Armin might be real, but not reciprocrate. So he ends up letting his insecurity and jealousy take over.</p><p> </p><p>(ATTENTION: This story takes place around the end of chapter 69 of the manga, but it only contains spoilers from volume 12/beginning of 13.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	True love makes you smile

**Author's Note:**

> Hey guys! How are you? (*´ω｀*)ﾉ
> 
> I wrote this story because I've been craving some Canon Era Jearmin in my stories for a long time. Hahah! I hope you enjoy it!
> 
> (PS: English verbs are HARD!!! I hope everthing is grammatically correct... (´△｀") )

The sun shone bright over their heads. It was a beautiful day and the couple had been enjoying their free time in the market. Armin picked up some fruits and gave the kind merchant a soft smile.

Armin smiled a lot. He smiled at the merchants at the market, he smiled at those who offered to help him with his chores, and at the teachers who complimented him during the classes when they were trainees. Still, his smile always seemed like a mask, hiding his true self.

Jean had seen Armin's true smile a few times. It was usually when he was near that damn Yeager. Jean would never admit to it, but he was jealous. Armin had never genuinely smiled whenever they were alone together and he wondered why that was.

Jean was straightforward. His opinions were stated clearly and directly. He saw no reason to beat around the bushes if he wanted the message go through. But Armin was different. He did not complain, or say anything straight to someone else's face. He was kind and polite, unlike Jean.

And yet, despite being so different, they managed to start some sort of romantic relationship. It happened by accident one night, after the whole ordeal with the Armored and Colossal Titans.

 

_Armin sat on the porch, cleaning the guns as Jean approached, trying to check on him._

“ _Hey.”_

“ _Hello.” Armin rose the corner of his eyes for a second._

“ _How's everything? Need any help?”_

“ _No, it's fine.” Once again, Armin fake smiled and continued to clean the tube of one of the rifles._

“ _Can I sit?”_

“ _Sure.” Armin looked at the spot beside him for a second._

_They did not talk much after that. Jean started some small talk and Armin replied in a way Jean could not move the conversation forward. Always simple answers, as someone who does not want to talk. Jean decided it would be best to leave him be for now._

_After a few minutes of silence, Armin got up, packing the guns back into the bag he had used to carry them there in the fist place. Jean offered to help once more, standing in front of him._

_At that moment their eyes met for the first time in a while. Armin seemed tired. Jean took a small step forward closing the distance between them and it happened. Armin dropped the bag slowly and got even closer, to the point their bodies touched. Jean lowered his head and Armin's lips reached his._

_It was a chaste, but long kiss. They did not feel love or lust for each other. It just seemed like a good way to forget all of the most recent incidents. Jean caressed the back of Armin's head for a moment before realizing this was probably not as appropriate as he thought._

“ _I-...Sorry.” Jean apologized._

“ _...N-No, I should be the one apologizing.” Armin turned his head, glancing at Sasha's back on the guarding stand for a second before picking up the bag from the ground._

“ _No, I was the one who took advantage of the situation and...”_

“ _What are you talking about?” Armin looked at him again, holding the strap from the bag._

“ _Well, your best friend was taken, we got betrayed, so I just thought you'd be...”_

_Armin sighed, lowering his head and placing the strap on his shoulder._

“ _I'm just tired. And I'm the one using you to feel better, so I'm the one...”_

“ _It's fine.” Jean interrupted. “I don't really mind it. I'm tired too. Of all this. So go ahead.”_

_Armin sighed, with a guilty expression._

“ _Jean, I can't.”_

“ _Of course you can. I'm letting you. I won't get hurt or anything. It's just stress relieve, no strings attached.”_

“ _Are you sure?” Armin rose his head, looking straight into Jean's eyes, as if checking to see if what he said was true._

“ _Yeah. I could use some of this too.”_

_Armin fake smiled again and caressed Jean's nape, feeling the shorter part of his undercut. Jean took Armin's lips in his again, in a not-so-chaste kiss that sealed their deal._

 

Ever since that day, they met from time to time, somewhere hidden from the others to relieve their stress. They liked each other, but were not necessarily _in love_. Just two young men with too much to handle for their age, helping each other relax during the most difficult times.

That had been one of those days. They had lunch together and went out for a stroll, which ended up at the city market. Having finished their shopping, they headed back to the Survey Corps Headquarters and Armin gave Mikasa a small pendant he had bought. It was a simple, cheap thing but it made Mikasa smile. Jean wondered how Armin had the power to make something silly like that mean so much to her.

Next, he took a rope wristband from his bag and handed it over to Eren who enthusiastically thanked him and put it on his own arm. Once again, there were soft smiles everywhere.

Jean hated it.

Specially when Eren hugged and tapped Armin on the back. Even though he and Eren were on relatively good terms considering the recent events, for some reason Jean found himself wanting to take those disgusting titanic hands off his boyfriend.

Except Armin was not his boyfriend.

That thought sunk into his heart and ached for the rest of the day until they escaped to swim in one of the nearby rivers, late at night. Armin had his hair pushed to the side, falling over his right shoulder as he washed his face. He looked so gorgeous it attracted Jean's lips to his left cheek.

“What was that for?” Armin chuckled softly.

“Dunno. Just felt like it.” Jean admitted, putting a strand of Armin's hair behind his ear.

“Huh... Okay.” Armin smiled softly, looked around and wrapped his arms around Jean's neck, pulling him down for a kiss.

“How come you never smile at me?” Jean busted out.

“What?” Armin let go, facing Jean.

“You never smile at me.” Jean repeated.

“Of course I do, Jean. I just did, a second ago.” Armin furrowed his brows.

“That's a fake smile. You do it to everyone. I'm talking about your real smile. Like when you're with Mikasa or... _Yeager_.” Jean did his best to hide his jealousy as he said that name.

“Jean, I don't know what you expect me to say.” Armin frowned, took a step back and shrugged.

“Do you like me?”

“Of course I do. I'm here, at this hour, breaking the rules just to be with you, am I not?”

“That doesn't mean you like me. You might tolerate me and like my face. I'm asking if you like me. For real. Do you enjoy my company?”

“Of course I do! I'm with you all the time, we chat, we play games...”

“But you never smile.”

Armin sighed and swam away. Jean feared he might have said too much, as usual.

“Where are you going?” Jean asked.

“Back to Headquarters. I won't stay here, risking a punishment, trying to prove anything to you. This is not why we're together. We're supposed to relieve stress, not create it.”

“So that's why we're together, eh?” Jean murmured to himself, sinking for about fifteen seconds to calm himself down under the cold water from the river before deciding to leave.

 

\--------------------

 

It was a few days later, in the middle of the night, when Jean had one of the worst nightmares of his life. Running, titans, blood everywhere and... Armin. Armin's inert body, lying on the ground in front of him. Jean was about to reach out for him as he woke up.

Jean's body was sticky from the sweat and his hands still shook. He looked around the room to see only one pair of eyes open, staring at him. All the others remained shut, still fast asleep.

“Are you okay?” Armin asked in a whisper.

“Yeah. Just a nightmare.” Jean lied.

Seeing Armin right in front of him, safe and sound made him want to hold him in his arms and never let go. But he was not sure he could. Ever since their argument at the river, they had been keeping their distance from each other.

Even so, Armin rose from his bed and silently climbed onto Jean's, sitting beside him. He touched Jean's naked back and awkwardly approached for a hug. Jean did not lose any time and hugged Armin back with all his strength.

At that moment he realized how he truly felt. Or maybe he simply decided to admit it to himself. He was no longer simply attracted to Armin. He loved him, from the bottom of his heart. But he could not tell. It was too hard, specially under their circumstances.

“Jean.” Armin started in a throaty voice. “You're squeezing me.”

“Sorry!” Jean let go, backing away from him.

“It's fine.” For a second there, Jean thought he saw it, but he did not get his hopes up.

“Hey, could you stay? Just for a while.” Jean asked.

“Sure.” Armin lay down beside him and Jean followed his movements.

They stayed there, staring at each other for a long time. Jean caressed Armin's head and watched as those gorgeous blue eyes fought to stay open.

“I don't think I can do this anymore.” Jean started.

“Hm? You can stop anytime, you know.” Armin said, only one of his eyes still open.

“No, not that.” Jean chuckled. “Us. I can't just be your escape anymore. I'm sorry.”

Armin rose, quite awake this time, and stared at him.

“I-...Okay. Sure.” He seemed hurt, or maybe worried, but faked a smile nonetheless. “I figured you would say that at some point.”

“It's not that. I just-....” Jean blushed and laid on his back, putting his arm over his forehead. He took a deep breath and sat back up. “I love you.”

“...What?” Armin's eyes were so widened Jean thought they might jump out of his face.

“I know it's ridiculous. I mean, we're still far from defeating the titans, we can die anytime now, we don't have time for this kind of thing. But still, I can't help it. You started as Eren's weird, quiet friend and now you're everything to me. You even saved me about... What? Three times so far?” Jean chuckled. “You've grown so much as a person I ended up falling for you.”

Jean rose his head to find Armin stuck in the exact same position, staring at him. He wondered if Armin had even listened to him until the blond snorted. Jean blushed even harder, specially as Armin tried to keep his laugh as quiet as possible, so he would not wake his companions.

“WHA-!” Jean started, before remembering to be quiet. “Why are you laughing!?”

“This is so out of character of you! These speeches, this... Well, kindness, it's so unlike you.”

Jean would have gotten angry, but there was no way he could. Not after realizing Armin had finally smiled at him. An honest, true smile like Jean always wanted to see. Jean himself ended up smiling, resting his back against the headboard. Armin crawled, lying with half his body on top of Jean, using his arm to support his head.

“I can't say it yet. I'm not sure if I could say I love you at this moment.” Armin admitted, looking up to meet Jean's eyes. “But be sure that you mean as much to me as they do.”

Jean was not hurt by Armin's words. Of course he would have loved to hear "I love you too." but he understood Armin's feelings. He understood there was too much going on and that, unlike him, Armin would need some time to process and think everything through before giving Jean a final answer. It was just the way Armin was and Jean liked that about him.

“That's fine. I just wanted to be the one that made you smile like that.”

Jean hugged Armin and repositioned them on the bed, letting both of them lie side by side, facing each other. He used his larger body to hide Armin from anyone that might wake up in the middle of the night and kissed Armin's forehead.

They exchanged a few kisses and caresses before Jean made the mistake of accidentally touching Armin's low back. Armin contorted and let out a laugh a little too loud. They waited a few seconds, frozen in place, hoping no one had woken up before Armin's expression changed to anger and he pinched Jean's leg. Jean knew it was coming, so he covered his own mouth and did not make a single sound.

They never engaged into any sexual activities per se, just a few touches here and there from time to time, but even so Jean had learned very well that Armin's lower back was off limits due to his extreme ticklishness on the area. As punishment for when he forgot he received a pinch, usually on his leg.

“Sorry.”

Jean whispered and kissed Armin again, pretending he did not notice his own hand was placed just below the “forbidden” part of Armin's body. It had been a happy accident, but he was definitely enjoying it. Armin did not seem to realize at first, but their childish giggles proved they knew very well what was happening.

Suddenly, they heard a loud noise and a thump from below made the mattress bounce. They stared at each other for a second before Armin mouthed “Eren.”.

Eren slept on the bed right below Jean's and had probably kicked the underside of the bunk bed. Jean could not help himself and smiled proudly. Armin rolled his eyes and gave Jean another kiss. It was almost the same as usual, except this one tasted like a victory.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading!


End file.
